


Not so Bad

by IamDaiBae



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Confessions, F/M, Fluff, Post-Timeskip | War Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), Pre-Timeskip | Academy Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-20
Updated: 2020-04-20
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:07:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23756608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IamDaiBae/pseuds/IamDaiBae
Summary: Hapi has a habit of pushing away people that got too close to her, but a certain silver haired boy seems to push back, trying to get close to her. Hapi lets the rumors get to her.
Relationships: Ashe Duran | Ashe Ubert/Hapi
Comments: 4
Kudos: 31





	Not so Bad

**Author's Note:**

> So this won a poll on Amino about what rarepair I should write, and this ship has so much potential that I knew I just had to write it. I apologize if it comes off as slightly ooc, I haven't gotten used to writing Ashe or Hapi ^^"

Hapi is a woman of many habits, a lot of them are beneficial and useful, some of them are solely selfish and the rest of them are solely for self preservation. Growing up learning to distrust everyone around her, it was hard for her to open up to even the people closest to her. None of them even know her entire backstory, and she planned on never telling them everything. That and it was fun to tell them all different stories so that they may confront her and then be confused about it. It was because Hapi was never used to having people around her care about her as a person, even when she first met them, they all looked at her the same way as everyone else. Hapi hated having to rely on anyone outside of the Ashen Wolves, having to interact with any of the surface dwellers was almost too much some days. People like Didi, Linny, The Bert made her exhausted. Even Claudester was too much, and she loved hearing about funny pranks. 

The one person she could stand was ironically to one person that was obsessed with knights. Freckles. The way his green eyes shone as he would talk about how valent knights were, and it made her sick to hear that he was aspiring to be like those pieces of scum who had the audacity to label her as a monster. For some reason, despite her hatred for the knights, let alone authority in general, he still wanted to talk to her and get her opinion on things. Some days Hapi wondered if he was picking a fight with her, wanting to debate, like a few other noblemen that have gotten onto her “do-not-interact” list. Granted, she was the one who initiated their first conversation, but part of her couldn’t let this starry-eyed kid be taken advantage of by those losers. Ever since then, Ashe was convinced he could try to change her mind about them; it was almost sweet if he wasn’t attempting to defend her captors. 

Recently however, he began talking to her more and more, telling her stories of knights and heroes that were less than his picture perfect idea of knights in stories, but it made Hapi relieved to know that there were raunchy knight stories, that maybe not all of them would have been as terrible as these knights. 

~

Rumors were nothing new to the redhead, and days like these would make it so easy to sigh and take down a building or so. It would have been entertaining if the beats she summoned weren’t drawn to her like bugs to fire. Instead she often relied on people like Coco to stand up for her, even Balthus would combat some of the rumors, literally with his fists if they were telling especially heinous lies about her. Leaving Abyss was becoming more and more frequent of a thing now that Chatterbox and the knights were constantly stop[ping by and checking in on them, so she figured that maybe it was alright to enjoy the sun. Her stomach growled, as she climbed out of the entrance hole, and she stretched her arms. Right by the dormitories, she could hear some of the knights and especially gossipy noble children talking about something. She leaned against the nearest wall, hidden from their view so she could listen in on their conversation. 

“Apparently Ashe has been spending time with that underground monster girl. I’m concerned about him, what if she gets angry that he wants to be a knight and hurts him? Or sighs so she can sick a monster on them?” The girl’s voice was shrill and high pitched, her eyes narrowed and she bit back an involuntary sigh. Naturally they would be worried about the golden boy himself, and because of her, his reputation was being brought down, being associated with her. “He always looks so stressed around her, I wonder if he’s just taking pity on her?”

That comment actually hurt her feelings, for some reason. Hapi didn’t do feelings, the only thing she felt was indifference and occasionally she would allow herself to feel either snarky, sarcastic, or happy; and even then, happiness was saved for occasions like stealing the left over deserts or seeing prissy nobles fall. Doubt and low self esteem were things that she hadn’t felt in a long time, and she figured she would need to confront someone about these things. She loved Coco and B, but she knew they’d be more concerned than necessary. Or at least Coco would be, B would just annoy her about standing up for herself. Yuribird was naturally the only person who simultaneously cared about her enough to let her vent, but not care enough to want to do something about the situation. It was a good relationship they had. 

The leader of the Ashen Wolves was getting harder and harder to find recently, much to her own frustration. Naturally he’d be in their classroom in Abyss, but no one had seen the rat, so she was forced to go above ground and see if Chatterbox gave him permission to go on an academy outing or if he was out on his own. She ended up near the fishing pond, and for a moment she was almost tempted to give up and start fishing, something to get her mind off of the annoying and bothersome “feelings” that sprung out of nowhere. 

Suddenly, she heard an accented voice call out to her, as well as the voice she had been looking for all day, and Hapi saw the person she was looking for, and the person she was avoiding. She felt stiff, unable to help the scowl on her face as she saw Freckle’s smile to her. What a joke. Instead of meeting them halfway, she went to turn away, deciding that maybe talking things through was a large waste of time and she had better things to attend to. Like a nap, or a snack, anything was better than this. 

As she turned around to storm off, suddenly she felt a hand on her arm and she swung around to glare at whoever it was, seeing the concerned face of the silver haired boy instantly made her upset. Yuribird made a face and kept his distance, which was new for him, and all Hapi could do was yank her hand back. 

“What do you want Freckles?” Hapi asked, her arms crossed as she didn’t bother to look at him, but she could see his body tense up. He was nervous, she noticed, though she wasn’t going to let him off the hook that easily. Maybe he didn’t do anything directly to her, maybe he was genuinely trying to be her friend, but when people are actively ruining his reputation just because of her, it wasn’t worth it. 

“Oh, you see, I...ah-” Freckles was fumbling with his words with a dumb look on his face while doing so, even his cheeks were turning pink. She wasn’t sure where this was going, but she needed to get him away before anyone else could tank his reputation even more. “I was wondering if you’d want to accompany me to the ball at the end of the month? I’m aware that maybe it’s not your sort of thing, and that you don’t care for events like such, but maybe- I’m sorry if this was foolish of me to ask, but I was hoping you’d-” 

Hapi’s jaw dropped in surprise, and her eyes went to her friend in this situation, who was looking awfully pleased with this. He planned on this. She could see that some of the knights had their eyes on her, they were looking at him as well. The longer she took to respond, the more embarrassed he looked, and Hapi wanted everything to stop at once. 

“Isn’t there someone you’d be better off going with? Don’t waste your time on someone like me. Word of advice.” Rejection sucked, Hapi noticed the look on his face when she said no and even Yuribird was giving her a look of surprise and something she couldn’t quite read. It was enough to tell her that she messed up, and all Hapi could do was suppress a sigh, then look at him. “Sorry Freckles.” Was all she said before she ended up walking away. Guilt wracked her senses, but she was doing it for him. Would she have said yes even without hearing the knights earlier? The more she thought about it, those feelings from earlier hurt even more. 

Yuri didn’t even try to ask her about it, instead he stuck with Ashe and wasn’t exactly sure what to say. Ashe tried to call out to her as she walked away, and his expression was one of confusion and defeat, which made Yuri uncomfortable. He didn't expect Hapi to say yes, but the hesitation was what led him to believe that she was going through something. He wasn’t the kind to get involved in other people’s drama, but fellow street kid solidarity kicked in, and the poor kid looked like she threw a lance directly into his stomach. As soon as Hapi was out of sight, Ashe laughed dejectedly, shaking his head. 

“I figured that she wouldn’t have agreed to go with me, I’m sorry to have wasted your time, Yuri.” Ashe said with a smile to Yuri, but the purple haired boy knew better to buy it. At least he could take rejection well. He couldn’t even respond before Ashe walked off as well.

~

Up until the ball, Hapi didn’t bother talking about what happened that day, and went back to her natural ways, sleeping, eating and avoiding people that weren’t from Abyss. This way she would hear less rumors, and less people would bother her. Though the ball was the next day, Coco had loudly announced that she was not going to allow Hapi to miss out on it. Part of her believed it was because she wanted to reenact some of her noble days, but free food was enough to get her to agree. Chatterbox was even good enough to get them custom made formal uniforms, even one that fit B. Gold never looked good on her, but if it made Coco happy for a night, she figured that she could last for ten minutes before leaving while Coco was off dancing with some poor sucker. Thinking back on it, her best friend was awfully enthusiastic about forcing her to go to the event, and naturally it made her suspicious. 

They all walked in together, but as soon as they entered, Yuri disappeared into the crowd, leaving Coco to storm off to see where he left, and B immediately went to the drink table. Out of her available options, she followed B, decided that food was going to make the ten minutes that she was being forced to be here better with food in her stomach. Hapi watched as students danced together, and it only reminded her that never once had she been taught how to do that sort of thing. It seemed like a waste of time, honestly. On the opposite side of the room, she could see a familiar face surrounded by people in his class, Freckles was laughing and seemed to be enjoying himself while she could only stare into her cup with a scowl. Suddenly Balthus wrapped around her shoulders and laughed, looking down to his friend. 

“Oh come on, lighten up. You do realize everything here is free, right? You look more sour than usual, loosen up.” He tried to get her to relax, but her expression remained as neutral as ever. 

Twenty minutes passed, and finally she decided that she was allowed to leave. She’d danced with Constance after her friend demanded that she go on the dance floor at least once, and then eventually she joined Linhardt in the corner of the room, watching people enjoy their time. They didn’t talk, simply sat beside each other as they both looked miserable. She dusted off the skirt and as she went to go leve, suddenly she felt a tap on her shoulder. It was Yuri with a smug grin and a hand held out to her. She made a face, but knew that they weren’t allowed to turn down dance invitations. With her hand in his, he brought her to the dance floor, and his eyes looked into hers as she spent her energy focusing on remembering the steps Constance had just taught her. 

“You look more troubled than usual. What’s going on?” Yuri asked her as she rolled her eyes, looking at Yuri with a small glare. She hated when he pried into her personal life, which wasn’t often. “I thought rumors didn’t bother you.” 

His comment made her look even more skeptically at him, wondering what about her made it so easy to guess what happened the prior weeks. The look on her face made him laugh, grinning down to her with a look that was too punchable. 

“When Ashe asked you to the dance, immediately you looked around to see who was watching. There were three knights and some nobles and you noticed them all.” Yuri recalled and she inhaled, using that as her sigh placeholder. She hated when he could read her like that, it was annoying and meddlesome at best, and frustrating and anger inducing at worst. “Poor kid got his hopes up, but I tried to talk him out of it, I knew you were going to say no.” 

Would she have, though? If she hadn’t heard those stupid knights and pompous rich kids, would she have considered it? At that point, she realized that she would have at least contemplated his answer, maybe even turned out the ball and made a raincheck to do something else. Her silence only made Yuri grin, knowing he had gotten the reaction he wanted. “Who could have figured you’d be the low self-esteem sort of girl? I thought things didn’t bother you.” He said before the song had ended and so did their dance. Suddenly when she looked around, Freckles was nowhere to be found, and instead, Yuri only whispered for her to go to the goddess tower. 

~ 

Hapi didn’t know why she listened to him, she didn’t know why she bothered to even contemplate going. But she did make her way up the stairs where surprisingly, there was no one. No one except Freckles, sitting on the edge as he looked off to the distance. Her footsteps must have spooked him through, and he turned back to look at her. Pink dusted his pale cheeks, and she stammered out a bit before she went to sit beside him without saying anything. 

“...” Hapi tried to think of something she could say. Without anyone to impress or convince she didn’t care, she wanted to apologize. Yuribird was right, she shouldn’t have cared so much what people would say about her. 

“I wanted to apologize, Hapi.” Ashe said, looking back to the distance with a small smile, earning a confused look from her. “I… I heard from some of the knights that they were talking bad about me, and it’s because I’ve been spending time with you. I personally don’t care what is said about me, but the things they have been saying about you because we’ve become friends isn’t fair to you.” He said, looking over to her in the corner of his eye. “But I enjoy being your friend, Hapi. You’re strangely funny when you don;t try to be, you’re brash, and you’re honest. I knew I had no chance when I asked you, but, ha, I did really want to go with you.” 

His confession made Hapi frown slightly as she looked off to the distance. Hapi had a habit of pushing people away once they were getting too close, but this one person was pushing back and she didn’t know how to react. 

“I would have said no.” She started, earning a dejected laugh from Ashe, and she could see the pain in his expression as it sounded like she was rejecting him another time. “But I would have said we ditch the fancy uniforms and do something else.” She muttered the last part, though he seemed to hear her just fine. 

“I know I messed up, I’m not someone people want to be seen with, for good reason. I shouldn’t be here with you, but you somehow seem to show up, even when everyone around you says it’s a bad idea.” The confession was genuine, and it wasn’t until after her last sentence. “Outside of the Ashen Wolves, no one has ever done that. If you do become a knight, then that’d be proof enough that they’re not all as bad as I think.” She said, giving him a small peck to his cheek and then stood up. 

As she began to leave the tower, she turned to look back to him with a slight grin. “I’ll see you later, Freckles.” With that, Hapi left, grinning slightly to herself as she left to return to Abyss, also leaving a very flustered Ashe to run to the stairwell and watch her leave, absolutely smitten. 

~

Five years later, Dimitri finally won the war with her and the other Wolves’ help, the woman who ruined her life dead, and finally she was free from her trauma. Hapi stood at the goddess tower, looking along the view that she remembered all that time ago. The time Ashe and her spoke, and the thought earned a small smile on her lips. It was strange remembering that moment, how different everything was, but Ashe was still the same boy she remembered. Still an aspiring knight, but he did what no one else would do. He would stand up for her, defend her, and didn’t care what anyone would say about her. It led to them being close friends, where he would tell her funny stories of the best-worst knights. 

Hapi even began really catching feelings for the knight-to-be, which was something she wasn’t prepared for at first, she was confused and even a bit worried about it, but she eventually came to terms with it. Now that the war is over, that things can finally calm down, she intended on confessing to Ashe. 

Hearing his footsteps from behind her, she turned around to look at him, grinning slightly as she swung her feet off the edge of the tower. Ashe looked nervous, his cheeks pink as his hands were fumbling slightly, but he really did look like a hero from one of his stories. He walked up to her and she got up, dusting the skirt free of any dust or such before her red eyes met his green ones, pushing down her impending nerves. 

“So, now that the war is over and, um, we’ve been really close friends for the past while, I was, well, I-” Ashe stammered out with his cheeks growing more and more red, while Hapi laughed, shaking her head slightly as she pulled out her own ring. It was a simple silver band, nothing inspiring or grand, but it was something she had made for this special occasion.

“You know Freckles, being with you isn’t so bad.” Hapi said to him while he quickly fumbled to get out a ring with a sparkling green gem, one that suited the redhead’s aesthetic very well. 

Ashe laughed in disbelief, shaking his head as he looked at her, thinking about how beautiful she was when the light of the sunset illuminated her. It was a sight he was lucky to see, seeing her smiling at him with her own hing in her hand.  “I’ve rehearsed saying this so many times before, I just… I want to spend my life with you, Hapi. I want to make sure you’re happy for the rest of your life, and I want to make sure you never have to worry about what anyone has to say.” His confession brought color to Hapi’s cheeks, and she could only shake her head a little. “Please say you’ll marry me one day.” He said, presenting the ring to her, still making a strong attempt at a proper proposal. The red eyed girl could only laugh and nod, holding her hand out for him. 

The ring fit perfectly, and as soon as her ring went on his finger, they embraced right there on the goddess tower, sharing a kiss after promising to spend their lives together. 


End file.
